The Humble I

Knowing, Doing, Becoming

Gai Eaton

December 16, 2015

A Perennial Problem: Is Islam the Only Valid Path to God?

Is Islam (the religion and way of life the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ came with) the only path to God? Does the Qur’an extend the validity of religions beyond Islam; to any who believe in God and act rightly? Or does the Qur’an insist that Islam is the exclusive and only path to God? And what of the idea… Continue reading

correctives & clarifications, theology

al-Ghazali, al-Nawawi, al-Razi, does Islam consider all religions valid?, Frithjof Schuon, Gai Eaton, Islam and salvic exclusivity, Martin Lings, no relion acceptable to God except Islam, perennialism, perennialist school, religio perennis, Rene Guenon, unity of religions
October 29, 2012

To Progress or Drift Dangerously Downstream?

Progress signifies a movement forward. But it tells us nothing about the actual nature of the movement. Is it downstream or upstream? Is it hurtling to danger or marching to safety? Is it a descent or an ascent? Is it a fall from Grace or a lifting of the Spirit? The fact that something marches forward progressively doesn’t… Continue reading

contemporary concerns, modernity & muslimness, politics & society

Gai Eaton, Islam and progress, liberal Islam, liberalism, must Islam modernise?, reforming Islam

About Me

My name is Surkheel Sharif (aka Abu Aaliyah). Born and raised in London, England, I began my more formal, but gradual studies of the Islamic sciences around the late 1980s (just a few years after having quit my degree in Astrophysics). I also gained an MA in Islamic Studies from Birkbeck College, University of London, in 2009.

I’ve translated a few Islamic works from Arabic into English; one of them, a short text on Muslim spirituality, called The Exquisite Pearl (2000). I have also authored a few books, including: More Fish Please & the Earth’s Complaint (2011); Fussing Over the 15th of Sha’ban & the Golden Rule of Differing (2011); A Muslim’s Guide to Modernity (2025); and Salafism Reconsidered (forthcoming)

I am the founder and current Director of the Jawziyyah Institute (est. 1999): a non-profit organisation dedicated to cultivating an Islam true to its time-honoured tradition, relevant to its current context, and of benefit to wider society.

Gai Eaton

A Perennial Problem: Is Islam the Only Valid Path to God?

To Progress or Drift Dangerously Downstream?